“What’s going on? What happened?”
“A corpse! Oh heavens, it’s really a corpse!”
“Quick, quick, stay away! Could there be some plague?”
Liang Guang arrived hurriedly with Lao Zhang Jicha, Xiao Jia, and several others, shouting angrily, “What’s all this noisy commotion about?”
The bearded man’s legs gave way as he collapsed to the ground, pointing at the resting stone. “Dog, Dogzi, it’s Dogzi.”
They had searched for Dogzi half the night yesterday, but hadn’t found a single trace of him.
Who would have thought that upon opening his eyes today, still half-asleep, he’d be confronted with Dogzi’s deathly pale face.
Remembering how he had just been hugging Dogzi’s neck, practically face to face and mouth to mouth with that lifeless countenance!
The bearded man could no longer control the churning in his stomach, rushing to the side to vomit violently.
Heaven and earth, all gods and buddhas bear witness – who could withstand such a thing!
Xin Nian nearly lost her composure, burying herself in her mother’s embrace while covering half her face with her hand, suppressing continuous laughter.
“Mom, did you see that man’s expression? Hahaha, I’m dying! I could laugh for three full days. This is so amusing.”
Serves them right for bothering her all day for no reason!
She had dug out the corpse in the middle of the night, taken all the silver from Dogzi’s body, and kindly helped the brothers embrace each other lovingly. Wasn’t that beautiful?
What a wonderful young girl!
So kind-hearted and understanding to an outrageous degree – even she herself wanted to shed tears of emotion at her own actions.
Wasn’t the bearded man constantly thinking about finding his brother? She found him and arranged for him to sleep right beside him, brotherly and close, and now he’s not happy!
People are truly contradictory.
That spectacular expression on his flat face, like a dye workshop had exploded – utterly fascinating!
Just thinking about how the bearded man’s facial features had scattered in terror made Xin Nian unable to suppress her laughter.
Xie Ninglan felt quite helpless, hugging her little daughter and tucking her deeper into her embrace to prevent her overly gleeful laughter from being noticed.
Well, her daughter was still young in this lifetime, only middle-school age. It was normal for her to do something slightly outrageous, especially since she was teaching a lesson to a bad person – nothing too improper.
Xin Nian’s shoulders kept shaking as she slightly raised her head from her mother’s embrace, her gaze accidentally meeting that of the two young masters from Yongkang Viscount Estate.
To be precise, the people from Yongkang Viscount Estate and Marquis’s Residence had been secretly observing them, and had just happened to catch the interaction between Xie Ninglan and her daughter.
It didn’t matter if someone saw her secretly laughing.
Xin Nian glanced at them indifferently, withdrew her gaze as if they weren’t there, and continued nestling in her mother’s embrace with soft laughter.
Han Li moved closer to his elder brother and whispered, “Big brother, did you see that? I told you that Xin family girl is somewhat peculiar.”
“Someone personally acknowledged by Old Gu for courteous treatment is naturally no ordinary person.” Han Zhao nodded thoughtfully.
When their gazes had met earlier, the young girl showed no guilt at being discovered, but instead swept her eyes over him quite openly.
That look… it made one feel like she was looking at some inanimate object…
Han Zhao unconsciously shuddered.
“Big brother, do you think this escort’s death might be related to that girl?”
Han Zhao pondered for a long moment, then shook his head. “I don’t know, and we shouldn’t make baseless assumptions. Let’s observe further. Don’t offend the Xin family during this journey.”
Over there, Liang Guang had already taken people to examine Dogzi’s corpse, his expression extremely grim.
“What exactly happened?”
Several escorts helped the pale-faced bearded man, who had finished vomiting, to sit to one side.
“How did you discover him?”
One of the bearded man’s followers said with a terrified expression, “Liang Tou, our Brother Mao opened his eyes and saw Dogzi holding him.”
“Stop, stop talking!” The bearded man’s face turned even paler upon hearing his subordinate’s words, his stomach churning violently once more as he couldn’t help but lurch aside to vomit.
Liang Guang glanced at him, then turned to the still-terrified subordinate. “You saw it?”
“Yes, yes, I saw it clearly. Gouzi’s hands were draped over Brother Mao’s shoulders. Brother Mao screamed in fright and stood up, trying to pry Gouzi’s hands off. They were already stiff—snapped right off with a crack when he pulled.”
Escort Lao Zhang rubbed the goosebumps rising on his arms. “Enough, enough, no need for such detail. Just tell us how Gouzi’s corpse ended up beside Brother Mao?”
“That’s just it—we don’t know! Last night we searched for Gouzi until late, didn’t even catch a shadow of him. This morning, he just appeared out of thin air, lying right next to Brother Mao!”
“Bullshit, cut the supernatural nonsense.” Liang Guang barked. “Quickly find a spot to bury him and prepare to move out.”
“Boss!” The subordinate was shocked. “Aren’t we investigating?”
“Investigate? With what clues? I’m not from the Ministry of Justice! Do you think we can investigate without traveling? Was today’s task completed? If we don’t reach Heng County in four days, are you going to fly there to handle the transfer and stamp the documents?”
The subordinate, thoroughly chastised, slunk over to help the bearded man up.
Several escorts efficiently lifted Gouzi’s stiff corpse and began digging a burial pit with practiced coordination.
Their well-trained demeanor suggested this wasn’t their first time handling such matters on exile journeys.
Xin Nian smiled faintly to herself, tracing the two Ningzhu beads attached to her wrist.
The beads required no fastening—they adhered to her wrist naturally and wouldn’t fall off. After pulling her prisoner sleeves down to cover them, they became completely undetectable.
After advancing to the second stage, her physical condition had improved significantly—ordinary travel would no longer be a problem.
However, limited by her current spatial power level, she could only create ten Ningzhu beads maximum, and couldn’t let her parents use them yet.
But it didn’t matter—she had full confidence in herself. She estimated that upon reaching the third stage, she might grasp some spatial mysteries and tear open rifts to search for her lost spaces.
She wasn’t greedy—just recovering a portion of her previous supplies would be enough.
Xin Wenyuan, freshly fitted with his cangue, shuffled over to his wife and daughter. “My girl, I just saw your elder brother’s eyelids twitch—is he waking up soon?”
Xin Nian grasped her father’s shackled hands, channeling some Healing Power into him. “Not that fast. He needs four more doses of medicine—probably will wake tomorrow or the day after.”
“Father, does your shoulder still hurt?”
“It’s manageable.”
“I’ll apply more medicinal ointment to your shoulders at noon.”
Xin Wenyuan grinned, gazing at his considerate daughter with growing delight.
He’d grown accustomed to carrying the ten-pound cangue during daytime travels now. Combined with energy absorption, his physique was gradually strengthening—today the burden felt noticeably less exhausting than previous days.
But his daughter’s caring concern still melted the old father’s heart.
“I’ll head off now. You two take care of yourselves.”
“Hey, hey—Lao Xin, Lao Xin!” Xie Ninglan blinked rapidly at him, pulling Xin Mohan who stood nearby. “Take good care of our son. Come find us together at lunchtime.”
Xin Wenyuan: …
What sin—he kept forgetting this poor son. The concept just didn’t register in his mind.
Seeing the child’s pitiful expression, Xie Ninglan reached out to pat his head. “Be good, Han’er. Don’t be afraid staying with your father.”
Little Xin Mohan nodded his head and obediently followed behind Xin Wenyuan as the father and son walked forward together.
Xin Nian glided over to her mother’s side, “How novel, having a younger brother in my thirties.”